The Indiana Publisher

Page 5 December 2020 Indiana newspapers face postal rate increases for 2021 Indiana newspapers need to plan for 2021 postal rate increases. The National Newspaper Association recently shared a warning for newspapers that depend upon the U.S. Postal Service for distribution. The NNA predicts significant rate increases for periodicals mail will be imposed in 2021, which will impact your budgeted expenses. To begin with, the USPS will add its inflation increase in January – 1.469 percent on Periodicals for outside county mailings and 1.202 percent for in-county mailings. Later in the year, according to Tonda Rush of the National Newspaper Association, USPS has the capacity to increase Periodicals rates as much as eight to nine percent or as low as one percent on top of the January increase. Some of the allowances it now has are dis- cretionary. First, Rush said the Postal Service must calculate the amount they could ask for according to a formula. Then USPS will decide whether it wants to take all the increase it is allowed. Here NNA's rough summary as to what might happen in 2021: • USPS has its inflation increase, which newspapers will see in January. • At some point in the future, USPS is required to add another one percent each year for 5 years to cover postal employees' retire- ment liabilities. • USPS also is allowed an increase to account for spread- ing costs among fewer pieces per household. The Postal Rate Commission calculates that this adjustment would have been 3.9 percent based on 2019 vol- umes. A Magazine Publishers economist says it could be as high as five percent. Again, this amount is discretionary. USPS can take this increase, but it is not required. Rush reported that any percentage it defers can be "banked" and added in later years. • Finally, to cover the cost cov- erage problems with Periodicals, USPS can take another two per- cent. This also can be deferred to a later year or years. Altogether, the four compo- nents add up to a seven to nine percent increase in Periodicals rates in 2021. Rush believes the brunt of the increases will hit between May and July of 2021. "The NNA are your pre- eminent champions on Postal issues, so I would seriously consider the impact they pre- dict if your newspaper relies upon the postal service for delivery," said Steve Key, executive director and general counsel for the Hoosier State Press Association. "Tonda Rush and Max Heath of NNA know the regulations and bureaucracy of USPS better than most post-al employees." Altogether, the four components add up to a seven to nine percent increase in Periodicals rates in 2021 ... the brunt of the increases will hit between May and July of 2021. be emailed by Friday, Dec. 18 to all Indiana editors and publish- ers. Unfortunately, the pandemic will prevent us from gather- ing for an awards ceremony. A virtual awards event will take place in late April of 2021. The actual awards will be mailed to all winners. "The newspaper industry has dealt with extraordinary events over the last year. It's gratifying to see HSPA reach a point where we once again can recognize the best of Indiana journalism," said Steve Key, executive director and general counsel for the Hoosier State Press Association. In a related note, the two boards determined not to resur- rect the awards program for advertising staffs. The continu- ing centralization and reduction in the number of advertising designers drove the decision. BNC Continued from Page 1 Jerome, who used to broadcast for WAXI kept a ton of statis- tics about ball games, etc. here in Parke County, and Larry kind of did that for us here. However, right now we have no idea where all that informa- tion is. His office is a small room, which at one time he felt would be more than large enough. However, the "Stuff" has greatly diminished his moving around space. Some weeks, he appeared to be sit- ting on top of stacks of papers, which of course, he wasn't, but here you can't ever throw anything away, we may need to check something once again. If you ever wrote us a threatening letter, or a nasty tome of hate and vulgarity, then Larry probably has it kept under lock and key someplace. No matter what the public said, or implied, Larry almost always kept his cool. (It is always amazing to me the things people say that are so hurtful and they either don't care or don't realize.) Larry was a chatty guy, and often I would be wander- ing on down the hall, and he would still be telling me the end of story or other. I would answer, and we were both satisfied that we were on the same page. He was my last direct link here at work, with Dick Harney. Larry was relatively young, having worked at WAXI, and when he started here, he learned the old fash- ioned publishing business. He learned the way Dick wanted pages laid out, learned the ins and outs of publishing legally. And he was the go-to man for apostrophes and where and when they were correct. And if you wanted to know who was the victim in a murder 20 or thirty years ago, then Larry could conjure it up at the drop of a hat. Larry would disappear into the courthouse on election night, and we would wonder when we would ever see him, when one took into account the many people waiting for election returns. All of a sud- den, he would be here at 125 W. High Street, totals in hand, and prepared to spend the rest of the night putting together a chart that told you who got what in what precinct. Larry rarely spoke about his home life, rather we got bits and pieces of how much he loved them all, and how thrilled he was to become a grandpa. New little grand- daughter, Olivia, she will be proud to learn about him as she grows up. Larry was a great guy! Involved in a million things that all made life better in so many ways. We will miss him, and where do we go from here? Bemis Continued from Page 3

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